Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will host the rest of the Jeopardy! season
There won't be new rotating guest hosts this time around
Now that we get to escape the horror of having Mike Richards be the Jeopardy! host, Sony has been scrambling to find a proper replacement that won’t piss as many people off. It was previously reported that Mayim Bialik would host the rest of the season until Sony picked out some new guest hosts. But now, Sony shared that starting September 20, Bialik is hosting the remaining episodes, which will air through November 5. After that date, Bialik will split hosting duties with Alex Trebek’s golden boy, Ken Jennings. So yes, that means that plans for a new group of guest hosts have been discarded.
TMZ broke the news ahead of Sony’s press release, noting that Richards—who served as executive producer on the show—made the suggestion to bring back guest hosts in an internal memo sent to staffers. But after Richards was fired as a producer in addition to losing his hosting gig, Sony doesn’t seem to want to follow his recommendations. TMZ also adds that while Jennings will be the interim host, sources say he’s “not seen as a real contender for the permanent gig” because of the ableist tweet that says “nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.”
While it looks like Jennings will not be Trebek’s permanent replacement, it’s unclear whether Sony is considering handing the hosting duties for the rest of the show to Bialik. If they did, that would still be a controversial pick. The former Big Bang Theory star made inappropriate remarks about Harvey Weinstein victims in an op-ed published in The New York Times. At the time, she said women should dress modestly if they don’t want to be assaulted by men. Her op-ed was widely criticized, with celebrities like Gabrielle Union and Patricia Arquette sharing their own stories and noting that their modest clothing didn’t stop them from getting assaulted.